Hen with curled feet - no balance - should I cull her?

[blueskylen]

Hi,

I have a hen that I had thought had Mareks , but at 3 weeks is still eating/drinking well, altho she has stopped laying eggs and lost some weight. I have been giving her Hypercin, as I had read on a post here. The first day that she was down - she could not move her legs at all, but slowly has gotten to the point that she can now stand on her legs. The problem is that both feet are partially curled and she cannot open them out to walk. She tries to stumble along in the cage that she is in right now, but has no balance and uses her wings on the sides of the cage to move about.
She is a beautiful young hen, and i sure hate to cull her, but I don't think that she would ever be able to function well again as she is now, and the other hens would probably pick at her as the weakest.

What do you think? Should I wait a couple more weeks to see if she regains motion in her toes, or go ahead and cull.

 

[KKatknap]

If it were me, I would wait and see. She sounds like she has improved in her legs already, and she may continue to improve and regain the use of her feet. I'd give her a shot.

Do you have something she can roost on? Even something @ an inch off the ground, so she can't fall & hurt herself? Don't know if that would help her feet come back, but I might try it. Like a square rod, just big enough that she has to stretch her toes a little to get on it.

Good luck with her! I hope she gets better!

 

[Higins00]

If you like her and she is still eating I would wait. Give her a couple of weeks if she is suffering then I can see culling her.

 

[blueskylen]

Thanks for the responses, i didn't think of putting a stick in the cage with her to get her to try to roost. her cage is a dog crate, so it is pretty big. I'll put a piece of broom handle in there this evening about 2 inches high, and see if she will try to get on it - it might help exercise her toes. At the very least, it will give her some motivation to move about more.